Tag Archive | 15 July

St Swithin’s Day (15 July)

….oh no!  it rained (slightly in the evening) in Urmston 2012.


St. Swithin’s day if thou dost rain

For forty days it will remain.

St. Swithin’s day (15 July) if thou be fair

For forty days ’twill rain nae mair.


If it rains on St. Swithin’s day then it will continue to rain for a further forty days.

St. Swithin was a Saxon Bishop of Winchester and was originally buried (at his request), in a humble outside grave at Winchester.

9 years later the monks at Winchester moved his remains to a magnificent shrine inside Winchester cathedral on 15 July 971. Legend says that during the ceremony it began to rain and continued to do so for forty days.